Memo reveals high-level dossier concern

A second memo revealing that defence intelligence staff thought the wording of the government's September dossier on Iraq was "too strong" emerged at the Hutton inquiry this morning.

Lord Hutton has already seen a memo from DIS scientist Brian Jones expressing his concerns over the dossier; giving evidence to the inquiry Dr Jones said he thought parts of the document were "over-egged".

Giving evidence for the first time today Tony Cragg, Dr Jones' boss and the retired deputy chief of defence intelligence, was forced to admit there had been a second memo, outlining the same anxieties.

This memo, dated September 20 2002, and from an anonymous member of the DIS said the presentation of the 45-minute claim was "far too strong" and suggested that instead the claims should be couched in terms such as "intelligence suggests that ...".

The author of the memorandum has not been revealed in court beyond confirmation that it was not the "Mr A" who gave evidence seconding Dr Jones' worries.

But Mr Cragg insisted he had not seen this memorandum at the time, and only read it when he returned from retirement to view his papers last week.

Mr Cragg said that disgruntlement among his intelligence analysis staff did not go beyond "general grumbles".

And he said that Dr Kelly's criticisms of the dossier to Newsnight reporter Susan Watts went "far beyond" any anxieties he had.

He described Dr Kelly's and Dr Jones' criticisms of the dossier as "two individuals commenting on two specific issues".

Questioned for over an hour by James Dingemans QC, he repeated several times that he was entirely satisfied with the dossier as it was presented to parliament and the public.

He admitted that although there were worries among his staff about the "discontinuity" between the way the 45-minute claim was presented in the body of the dossier and the way it was described in the prime minister's executive foreword, he did not think the four separate mentions of the 45-minutes in the document gave it "undue prominence".

Mr Cragg said he was happy with the single source of the 45-minute claim because he was told by John Scarlett, the chairman of the joint intelligence committee, that the source was "established and reliable" and had a "good reporting record".

The retired civil servant revealed that although he did not know of Dr Kelly until after his name became public, the secret intelligence services had made "representations" to Dr Jones about the strength of the 45-minute claim after Dr Jones voiced his initial concerns.

Mr Cragg said he did not know that Alastair Campbell had been making comments about the dossier's drafting but with hindsight he had no problem with this so far as it did not go beyond intelligence.